Planning with the 5 Pursuits

Literacy Roots and Routes

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Philadelphia Writing Project

Invitational Summer Institute

Day 5: June 27, 2022

Culturally and Historically

Responsive Literacy Framework

In Cultivating Genius (2020) and subsequent talks,

Dr. Gholdy Muhammad argued that curricula should be built on pursuits that were central to Black literary societies:

• Identities (our own and those of others)
• Skills (that are part of doing work in a discipline)
• Intellect (or key ideas from a discipline)
• Criticality (which involves examining and changing the world)
• Joy (cultivating our own and seeing joy in how others live)

Trey’s Grade 4 Podcast Project

Five pursuits and the environmental impacts of clothing project:

• Identities: What are our personal connections to fashion? People in our lives and community? Around the world?
• Skills: How can I craft an argument/podcast to persuade others?
• Intellect: What is the environmental impact of clothing? How do the parts of the system interact?
• Criticality: How do low wages, consumption, and a view of humanity as separate from nature influence our current clothing system?
• Joy: How do clothing and fashion bring joy to us and our communities? What about making and creating clothing?

Trey’s Grade 7 Monuments Project

• Identity: Students reflect on the ways that monuments are often reflections of what communities value and who they say they are. A number of students identified as descendants Taíno and were able to share their own understandings and community ideas about Columbus with our class.
• Skills (Practices): Students used historical thinking skills to analyze and construct narratives with primary and secondary sources. A revision of this unit would involve students crafting Op-Eds or other persuasive texts that make a public case for reading and/or (re)writing a particular monument.
• Intellectualism (Core Ideas): Students learned about early Europeans colonization and conflict with peoples indigenous to the Americas. A revision of this unit would emphasize the histories and cultures of Indigenous peoples prior to European contact.
• Criticality: Students identified which texts were told from a Eurocentric perspective and recognized that there were often silences in the curated historical record regarding the Taíno.
• Joy: Students reflected on how monuments and stories about our past can bring joy—but also some pain. A revision of this unit would involve featuring more texts and sources that depict the lives of the Taíno past and present so that students would better be able to recognize the beauty of the culture and integrate these understandings into their designs for public memory.

Sasha 9th Black History Album Project

1. Identities: How can students use music from the past and present to represent their understanding of Blackness in America?
2. Skills: How can students use citations and writing skills to show critical analysis of music
3. Intellect: How can students use what they know in conjunction with prior knowledge and current concepts to show overall understanding
4. Criticality: What songs do students choose and how do they represent the inequity, under represented groups in America?
5. Joy: Ho does this project crete joy inside my classroom?

Alli- Middle School Vocational Studies

• Identities: How can students research within the community to learn about jobs and how to obtain a job?
1. I can identify jobs within my community.
• Skills: How can students identify skills required in specific jobs?
• I can name what skills are needed for [specific job].
• Intellect: How will students generalize their learned job skills within their communities?
• I can use job skills I learned in multiple workplace settings.
• Criticality: How can I help my students understand what jobs will be available to them in the future and how they can obtain these jobs?
• I can find a job that fits my abilities and will accommodate my needs.
• Joy: What are my students’ interests as related to jobs?
• I can choose a job based on my interests.

Jess- Facing Fear Unit

• Identities: Students reflect fear impacts daily life in both small and large ways.
• Skills: Students will be able to analyze both fiction and nonfiction text.
• Intellect: Students understand that fear is biological, emotional, and social process that affects people in a variety of ways.
• Criticality: Students will examine the ways in which people have faced fears in order to stand up to social injustice.
• Joy: Students will see the ways in which fear can be a transformative experience/catalyst for growth.

Carly - Folktale Book Report

• Identities: Why are oral traditions important? How do folktales reflect my culture and the culture of others, depending on where they are from?
• Skills: How can I accurately summarize the folktale? What is the moral of the folktale? What text connection can I make?
• Intellect: How do folktales share life lessons? How can we understand these lessons and apply them to ourselves?
• Criticality: Why were these oral stories written down? Why is it important to have written record aspects of culture? Why are some of these stories suppressed?
• Joy: Why do people continue to share oral traditions through folktales? Students can learn more about their/other culture(s) and the lessons that are emphasized through these stories.

Freda or Frankie

• Identities: How do my intersections shape my experiences of the world
• Skills: Defining and applying key terms
• Intellect: Understand the definitions of race, racism, prejudice, anti-racism, and intersectionality
• Criticality: How has/can anti-racism be used to build the future we want to live in?
• Joy: Celebration of chosen identities in the half and half self portrait. And imagining a better future/freedom dreaming (Bettina Love’s concept)

Sandra: Unit 1- Community

• Identities: I can learn about how rules can protect or harm communities.
• Skills: I can ask and answer questions about the text and events.
• Intellect: I can understand that rules must be fair for all people to keep us safe and provide opportunities for growth.
• Criticality: I can understand that rules and laws can be used to exclude members of certain communities. I can use my voice to advocate for fairness and justice.
• Joy: I can share ways that I can add to my communities happiness and growth.

Niki

• Identities: I can learn about Native American tribes in the West.
• Skills: I can learn about myths and legends.
• Intellect: I can learn about survival and having a reciprocal relationship with nature.
• Criticality: I can learn about the unspoken experiences of Native Americans who were forcibly removed from their land.
• Joy: I can learn about joy Native Americans sought during the Trail of Tears.

Gina- Dystopian short story

• Identities: Students could write about an identity that is being oppressed/outlawed by a dystopian society.
• Skills: Students will learn story structure and point of view.
• Intellect: Students will learn and define the concept of systems, (as the 10th grade theme is systems)
• Criticality: Students will apply the theme of systems to societal issues, and work to understand how specific issues are results of systems of oppression (i.e., racism, sexism, classim, capitalism)
• Joy: The protagonist will resist the society and seek a way to free themselves and others. Their story must include an act of joyful resistance (i.e., dance, music, art, food, love, etc)

Keya Brame Civil Rights Heroes (Module 3 Wit & Wisdom)

• Identities:I can learn how I can respond to injustice.
• Skills: I can learn how people used writing and speech to respond to injestices.
• Intellect: I can learn what injustices people faced before the Civil Right Act of 1964.
• Criticality: I can learn about the experiences of youth protestors during this time. I can also think about what groups of people are not present in most texts about the Civil Rights Movement.
• Joy: I can reflect on the music, poetry and arts during this period.

Amber: Latinx people and music

• Identities: What music do you hear at home/in your neighborhood? What kind of music do you identify with? What kind of music would you not expect to hear in your home/neighborhood?
• Skills: What genre are the music that we hear in our neighborhood? How can we tell?
• Intellect: Describe something that you notice about the music in your neighborhood. What are similarities between songs/types of music?
• Criticality: What is different about the music that you/your family/ and neighbors listen to and the music you hear/ expect to hear in school? Why do you think that is?
• Joy: What is your favorite part about hearing this music at home/in your neighborhood? What is your favorite memory associated with the music you hear everyday?